Greetings!

As an aspiring writer, photographer, and artist, I communicate through words, pictures, and art. My name is Hazel, and as a thirteen-year-old homeschooler, the world is beginning to open up in new opportunities, adventures, and quests that I am starting to embark on. This blog is a conduit of my journey, what I’ve learned, and what I hope to teach.

I began to be involved in photography when my stepfather, my mother, and my grandfather and I moved to Creston, British Columbia. I’d been interested in photography before, taking pictures here and there, but when I started to observe life brimming in the places nobody seems to notice anymore, I grew inspired. Walking in the coniferous forests behind our house, my eyes began to be caught by the magical moments that we so often miss in our busy lives. A snail shell framed by cedar; fir-cone mushrooms darting from a fallen pinecone; moss sprinkled with rain and caught by the light. As I saw these scenes, I felt myself being infused with wonder, enchantment, and an intuitiveness that is, although not new to me, a feeling that has influenced my work and my aspirations.

The name of this blog, Instinct & Intuition, is a tribute to the two important senses that we have lost touch with. I hope that as people read my work and join this space, they become aware of their own connection with instinct and intuition. Instinct is the tradition that carries on throughout generations, the inner compass that is imbued across feather, fang, finger, fir, flower, fish. Intuition, often described as a “gut feeling”, is the place inside ourselves where we know who we are, what we are, and what our purpose is. As you read my work and study my photography, I hope you are steeped in an instinctual and intuitive brew.